I write you to express my dismay in how the Secret Service’s FOIA office has conducted itself in regards to my request for the Secret Service files on Aaron Swartz. A formal request under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) conforming with your guidelines was sent by certified mail and received in February 2013. After making repeated phone calls over a space of weeks to the FOIA communications center I was finally given an acknowledgement letter on April 5th, 2013 that the office had formally received the request on March 5th, 2013.

Once upon a time, “homeland” was a word of little significance in the American context. What American before 9/11 would have called the United States his or her “homeland” rather than “country”? Who sang “My homeland, ’tis of thee, sweet land of liberty”? Between my birth in 1944, as World War II was drawing to a close, and September 11, 2001, I doubt I ever heard the word in reference to the U.S.

There was a reason: “homeland” had a certain ring to it and anyone would have known at once just what that ring, that resonance, was. Not to put too fine a point on it, we’re talking about the ring of evil.

Someone at the Department of Homeland Security website dedicated to studying terrorism thought they should do their job and really describe terrorist groups, including one funded by the FBI. The Secret Army Organization was involved in domestic bombings, break-ins, and assassination, while one of its top leaders

One year ago today, Occupy Oakland declared a National Day of Action against Goldman-Sachs.

The action would center on the Port of Oakland, which they shut down for over two days. Solidarity actions around the country took place at other ports, at Walmart distribution centers, and Goldman-Sachs offices in New York City.

About 200 occupiers from around Texas gathered at Occupy Houston’s encampment, Tranquility Park, and from there traveled to the Port of Houston where we blockaded the main entrance. There were twenty arrests.

Judge Joan Campbell’s release reveals that a total of six undercover officers were assigned to monitor Occupy Austin, but three were apparently not involved directly in the lockbox incident where undercover Austin police built lockbox devices. Made from PVC pipes and also known as sleeping dragons or dragon sleeves, lockboxes linked seven protesters together at the December 12, 2011 Port of Houston shutdown. The use of these devices resulted in these occupiers from Austin, Dallas and Houston facing felony charges instead of the misdemeanors brought against those who simply linked their arms and legs.

The Department of Homeland Security today announced a change to immigration rules, saying that they would consider same-sex couples as “family relationships” for the purposes of immigration policy. Specifically, the written guidance reads, “In an effort to make clear the definition of the phrase ‘family relationships,’ I have directed ICE to disseminate written guidance to the field that the interpretation of the phrase ‘family relationships’ includes long-term, same-sex partners.” This means that same-sex couples in binational relationships would have their coupling considered as part of any immigration proceedings. There are roughly 36,000 such couples today.

The pre-trial hearings for the Gulf Port 7 case continued on September 6, 2012; although the Austin Police Department presented the information Judge Joan Campbell requested at the previous hearing, most of it was done in camera — in private, where defense and accused activists could not access it. What was revealed is troubling — that APD coordinated the day’s actions with Houston police through the local Texas fusion center, known as Austin Regional Intelligence Center. This, of course, raises the question of to what degree federal authorities were involved in the entrapment of Occupy activists.

US agencies have been ignoring evidence of right wing and supremacist links to domestic terrorism ever since a DHS report pointed out the growing risk. The latest killings at the Sikh temple is likely to bring forth the same right wing reactions. TBogg reminds us what happened back in 2009.

Yesterday I noted that the vaunted deportation reviews promised by the Department of Homeland Security haven’t actually taken place. Some incredible youth activists in Florida set out to prove this. They intentionally got themselves placed in immigrant detention centers to uncover the others held in the facilities, and they found many who should not be there.